Posted: 4/18/2022

US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme -- Planning Grants

The Governments of the United States of America, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have come together for a unique initiative to advance scientific progress in fields that will have a significant impact on the health, well-being and economic prosperity of all their citizens.

The “US-Ireland R&D Partnership” links scientists and engineers in partnerships across academia and industry to address crucial research questions; fosters new and existing industrial research activity that could make an important contribution to the respective economies: and expands educational and research career opportunities in science & engineering.

Deadlines: Applications are accepted under a rolling Call.

Areas of Interest

The following thematic areas are prioritised as important research grand challenges for the health and prosperity of the citizens of the United States, Ireland and Northern Ireland:

  • Nanotechnology
  • Diabetes
  • Sensors
  • Cystic Fibrosis.

The Partnership is guided by a joint Steering Group composed of senior representatives from government, academia and private industry across the three jurisdictions.

Working groups, with representatives from each jurisdiction, have been established in each thematic area to advise and make recommendations to the Steering Group on the scientific themes and issues to be addressed in each area.

Under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership, a ‘single-proposal, single-review’ mechanism is facilitated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) who accept submissions from tri-jurisdictional teams to a number of their existing funding programmes.

As part of this funding process the governments (and/or relevant government research agencies within the Partnership) contribute to the research costs of researchers based in their jurisdictions. All proposals submitted under the auspices of the Partnership must have significant research involvement from researchers in all three jurisdictions.

Amount Description
The aim of the SFI US-Ireland R & D Partnership Planning Grant is to provide planning travel support to researchers in Ireland to travel to the United States in order to develop specific projects with US collaborators for identified programmes under the NSF and NIH auspices. Planning grants are not a pre-requisite for all Ireland researchers who subsequently intend to submit a formal application, under the auspices of the US-Ireland R & D Partnership, to SFI for matching funding for any NSF and NIH competitions. They are intended as a vehicle to facilitate development of the tri-jurisdictional application. Should this tripartite application be successful, funding will be provided by the applicable agency to the partners in their jurisdiction. SFI has agreed to manage the assessment process of these planning grants on behalf of Invest NI.